Tutorial: How to make your own wooden Buttons:

For the past few weeks I have been having fun making wooden buttons.  I thought I would share these lovelies and how to make them with you.

Equipment:
Jigsaw or Hand saw with a thin blade
Dremel with coarse and fine sanding drums/ or coarse and sand paper for sanding by hand
1/16 inch drill bit for dremel ( or drill and 1/16th inch bit)
Paintbrushes
Materials:
Long straight stick or dowel --mine is about 1 3/4" in diameter
Paint
Polyurethane or Sealing





Step 1: Slice your stick or dowel into disks. Mine are a little more than 1/8" thick.

Step 2:  Drill holes

Step 3:  Smooth and shape the disks using Sand paper or dremel with sanding drums.  I recommend wearing safety goggles and a dust mask while working with the dremel as it throws a lot of dust in your face.  Start with the coarse sand drums and smooth the surface of the buttons.  Then while holding the button in you hand rotate it slowly as you sand the edges into the desired shape. I mostly held my dremel at a slight angle to the disks to make a slightly beveled edge. If you want to keep the bark on your buttons be very careful while shaping the edges or you will sand or break it right off.  One the button is the right basic shape you will want to switch to the fine sand paper/drum and sand it until it feels silky smooth in your hands.

Step 4:  Clean up the dust from your work are and wipe off the buttons.

Step 5:  Painting and staining---This is the fun part.  You can pretty much do anything you want to the buttons now.  I painted most of mine but I used a little used vegetable oil to give a light stain to a few and I have use wood stain on buttons I have previously made.

Step 6:  Seal your buttons.  You can either spray your buttons with a clear sealant or brush them with polyurethane.  (I forgot to take pics of this step sorry)

WIP Wednesday: hats, buttons and more

Since last week was Knit Crochet Design Week I didn't do my WIP Wednesday post.  This week I am back to regularly scheduled programming and ready to show you what's been keeping me busy.

Chart for Mel's afghan:

The chart is pretty much done.  Now I need to test it.

A second Elephant Hat:

This elephant has a 14 inch circumference and so will fit babies with a a 15-17 inch head ( around 3-9 months)

IT will probably done for Friday so you can see it.

Hat for Me:

I am kind of free forming a beret style hat for my self.

I am probably going to have to pull back quite a ways and try again because I think the band is going to be too small.

Steamer Chest:

I was hoping that this would be done by Friday so I could reclaim my dining room but I am not sure that's going to happen.  We've had some set backs on it as well.  

Buttons:

Buttons are so much fun.  I have been experimenting with different finishes and painting.  If I have time to seal them some of these may be ready for Friday.  These are pretty simple but I am considering a tutorial on how to make them.  Would any of you be interested?

These little  people are super cute but I am not sure how I'll be able to attach them 

without obscuring the faces

Books:

I usually listen to  various audio books while crochet and doing other work around the house so I am always reading or listening to something.  This week it has been  Broken by Kelley Armstrong and Every Which Way but Dead by Kim Harrison.

As a huge fan of urban fantasy I would recommend both series wholeheartedly but recommend you read them in order ( unless you're like me and read them in whatever order you can get them from the library).  Reading them out of order is not too bad but has left a few strange gaps in the story line as hop around.

Broken is book 6 in Kelly Armstrong's  Women of the Otherworld Series.  I have read most of the other books and of the two series this is by far the easier to read out of order.  Broken opens with Elena Michaels, the world's only female werewolf about 6 weeks pregnant.  The reader gets to follow along her crazy pregnancy as she deals with the pressure of changing into a wolf bi-weekly, terrifying nightmares, overprotective pack-mates and many more pregnancy issues.  As the story progresses a Elena accidentally opens a dimensional portal near downtown Toronto and has to deal with a rogue, sorcerer, dimensional zombies, and figuring out how to close the portal.  What I especially love about these books is that Kelley's female characters are neither so buff and independent that they seem like Superman, neither are they wimpy, ditzy, silly girls that either excell by pure luck  ( think Stephanie Plum) nor do they constantly need rescuing ( like Cassandra Palmer).  I love the way Armstrong portrays all of the character's as strong individual made better by teamwork.

Every Which Way But Dead is book 3 in Kim Harrison's  Hallows Series.  The Hallows series features Rachel Mariana Morgan, smart, sexy, powerful witch who always seems to get herself into a ton of trouble just trying to survive and protect her friends.  Book 3 opens just after Rachel has made a deal with a demon to help put Cincinnati's master vampire behind bars for murder.  Rachel manages to become the demon's familiar, break the familiar bond, get pulled in the demon ream The Everafter, and escape, with each twist of the plot simultaneously getting her out of immediate trouble and causing even more long-term damage to both her reputation and her ability to live a normal life.

 What have you been working on this week?  Come and visit Tamis Amis, Ambassador crochet, Frontier Dreams or Ginny's Yarn Along to join in the fun.

WIP Wednesday:

A while ago I participated in Tamis Amis Work in Progress: Wednesdays, and Finished Object Fridays and it really helped to keep me motivated.  So I have decided to do it again and hopefully keep up with it this time.Right now I have a bajillion projects in the works.

Making a crochet chart of one of my sister Mel's favorite Bass pieces:

I am planning to crochet the first one or two measures as a center panel of an afghan I am working on for her Christmas present.  So far I have:

A tenor Clef

A Turtle Shell Photo Prop and hat:

Pentagon Motifs laid out

Starting to slip stitch the pentagons together

Shell all stitched together

Matching hat

I messed up the color changes at the joins and I will need to  rip back and fix it.

Homemade buttons:

We are adding a faux leather finish to the beat up old steamer chest that lives in our entrance way:

A mystery Project--This project has taken ages and ages because we can only work on it when we go to my Mother-in-Laws house.  There just isn't room ( or tools) for woodworking in our tiny apartment. :

Can you guess what these will be?  I am so excited about them hopefully a couple more trips out to Mom's and we'll have them ready to come home and I can show you  the finished project.